


Abundance

by tocasia



Series: Our Shining Past [21]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: AU, Gen, Sephiroth and Zack friendship, the war in Wutai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-19 23:26:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11908416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocasia/pseuds/tocasia
Summary: The war in Wutai has only begun.  Zack hasn't been there long.(83. abundance) for Seph&Zack Friendship 100 Themes





	Abundance

SOLDIER Third Class Zack Fair (the title was fresh so he was proud to think of himself that way) had discovered that Wutai was an abundance of misery.

It was nothing like camping in the familiar jungles around Gongaga. Even though parts of Wutai were tropical forest, the plants and monsters were all different. Most in his squad (and he was no exception) couldn't identify the night sounds. Was that scream some kind of exotic owl-banshee or had someone really died?

The damp seeped into everything. Fires wouldn't stay lit. About the best you could do was to try to keep mud out of your tent, a task doomed to failure. The enemy could be anywhere. Constant alertness took its toll and made war infinitely more surreal than Zack had ever imagined. He wondered if he'd have signed up if he knew. Yeah, probably.

He was SOLDIER Third Class, so it was easy to overhear conversations all throughout the camp.

A fellow Third disclosed that they (the Seconds and Thirds; Andy rarely included anyone of lower rank in his collective pronouns) would be assigned new materia today, which meant they'd go on patrol to learn how to use it. Fighting some monsters would be a nice change of pace, a step up from marching through the wilderness hauling these heavy packs. Something else occurred to Zack: Shinra would know where they'd eradicated the monsters, but Wutai wouldn't. It was clever, using the monsters as an additional hazard on the battlefield, another layer of terrain for the enemy to stumble over.

Infantrymen swore as they picked leeches out of their boots and cleaned their guns for the umpteenth time that morning.

When would the next battle be? Would they be sent on a mission to infiltrate a command center? Or maybe... ordered to burn a village not worth capturing. Most dreaded that. It was hard to forget how they reminded you of the people at home. You worried that if you got too good at it, that you'd have no home to go back to.

"New shipment of materia come in from the General. Real fresh stuff. Blood ain't been rinsed off yet."

Zack hurried to get in line with the others. There was a whole _truckload_ for distribution! He might get more than one! Visions of heroism danced in his head.

The sergeant glanced at him and chuckled. "Look at 'im, just like a kid."

 


End file.
